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The Indian Express
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Political scientist Tariq Thachil said that the Sewa wing of the RSS, which has been active for years at the grassroots in the Hindi heartland, is a major reason why 33 per cent Dalit voters voted for the BJP.

EVEN AS the 2019 Lok Sabha elections signalled a popular leader powering his party to victory, the ‘Modi Wave’ narrative could be premature, said political scientist Tariq Thachil.

Thachil was speaking at a talk titled ‘Why poor vote for elite parties’ hosted by the School of Development Studies at Tata Institute of Social Sciences on Tuesday.

The Sewa wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which has been active for years at the grassroots in the Hindi heartland, has also played a major role in the elections. This is a major reason why 33 per cent Dalit voters voted for the BJP, said Thachil.

Sewa outfits of the RSS such as Sewa Bharati And Vanwasi Kalyan Ashram have played a major role in the 1990s and early 2000s in increasing the BJP’s presence among Dalits and adivasis.

Thachil, an associate professor of political science at Vanderbilt University, has also authored a book titled Elite Parties, Poor Voters, examining the rise of the BJP among poor voters in India.

“It is hard to isolate the BJP’s win from the important structural advantages that the party enjoys. The most obvious is money. The Association for Democratic Reforms, an independent election think tank, tracked the incomes of India’s seven largest political parties in 2017-2018. They found that the BJP’s income from donation was more than twice the combined income of the other six parties,” said Thachil.

Thachil added that while the role of the RSS may be changing, it did not seem that it was losing its clout. “Modi has repeatedly stated that he is committed to the RSS and his history is personally rooted in the RSS. This is in some way a consolidation of the RSS in the BJP. It would be a mistake to assume that the BJP doesn’t benefit from the RSS. Before, the RSS had a lot of leverage which is now equally commanded by the BJP,” he said.